"Mr. Manling could scarcely suggest a fairer proposition for himself, either; as this offers him an unfailing crib to crack, averaging two hundred pounds nightly, while permitting us cheaply and safely to insure the protection of the women and keep the proposition a pure sporting one, as the loss of the pools—to which we all contribute—really hits no one hard.
"This implies, of course," Mr. Dunneston concluded, "that we shall each night run up the pools to at least four thousand shillings, as we have been doing—and to as much more as we will—and that the winner will, without taking cowardly or unusual precautions, pit himself alone against Mr. Manling. The winner will compact, that is, to carry the pools with the customary carelessness of the usual traveller; and let Mr. Manling compact, in return, to operate against only the winners of our pools! What do you say?"
"The gentlemen will all please, now, take paper," young Preston requested, after the
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